My D&D campaign went a different route, in that we established formal “adventuring guilds” in the city, in large part because there was a megadungeon nearby that could support that sort of thing. That said, I still included a number of mercenary companies, especially in our Obsidian Frontier prequel campaign, during which most of the adventuring guilds hadn’t been established.

Sly Flourish – Six Beholder Deathtraps:Volo’s Guide to Monsters write-up on eye tyrants inspired Sly Flourish’s list of beholder death traps. The traps are ideas rather than formally statted creations, such as this one:

It’s excellent idea fodder. Volo’s Guide also inspired me when it came to beholders; one of our oldest campaign legends is of the beholder enclave known as the “City of Eyes”. Until Volo’s Guide came out I didn’t have a good idea of exactly how such a thing could work, given the eye tyrant’s xenophopic and intraspecies paranoia … but I do now. [insert evil dm laugh]

The Other Side – Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia Unboxing: One of the biggest holes I have in my D&D collection is the original B/X rules. I still have my fraying D&D Basic Set rulebook, but I donated my Expert, Companions, and Masters to my college game club. I’ve been contemplating getting a print-on-demand version of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia from RPGNow but I wasn’t sure what the quality would be. The Other Side answers that question quite nicely with an unboxing of the print version and comparison with existing print copies.

(Warning: light spoilers ahead) This post about the various hidden (and not so hidden) Easter Eggs in Ready Player One largely matches my own feelings on the movie, though I think the most egregious exclusion was a proper Dungeons & Dragons scene. It didn’t need to a Tomb of Horrors dungeon crawl — just a short flashback to Halliday playing D&D with his friends in their fledgling corporate headquarters would have been enough.

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About Nuketown

Nuketown is a speculative fiction website that’s been published continuously since 1996.

It’s publishing focus is articles, reviews and editorials about science fiction, fantasy, and horror with heroic overtones. It covers a variety of topics within the speculative fiction genre, including games, movies, soundtracks, books, and websites.